The COVID-19 History Project

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This Day in COVID: June 8, 2020

Details

A detailed timeline of all the ways Trump failed to respond to the coronavirus

The federal coronavirus response shows a president dead set on avoiding responsibility for the pandemic.

Vox

Hard hit New York City begins reopening as coronavirus infection rate plummets

Reuters

Shutdowns prevented 60 million coronavirus infections in the U.S., study finds

Washington Post

Asymptomatic spread of coronavirus is ‘very rare,’ WHO says

Government responses should focus on detecting and isolating infected people with symptoms, said the WHO's Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove.

CNBC

England launches study of coronavirus spread in schools

Reuters

A dream come true' as visitors return to Spanish nursing home

Reuters

It's Official: U.S. Economy Is In A Recession

The committee tasked with marking U.S. business cycles says the economy peaked in February and has since been in a recession triggered by the pandemic. But it says the recession could be short-lived.

NPR

Trump to restart MAGA rallies this month despite coronavirus

The president and his team believe the massive protests in recent weeks will make it harder for critics to single him out.

Politico

Black business owners on Washington's historic U Street see echoes of 1968

Reuters

Moscow lifts coronavirus lockdown as Russia partially reopens borders

Reuters

Black Lives Matter Estimates that as Many as 100,000 Protesters Gathered in Hollywood on Sunday

LA Mag

George Floyd death: Why US protests are so powerful this time

There have been many Black Lives Matter protests before, but things seem different this time. Why?

BBC

‘They set us up’: US police arrested over 10,000 protesters, many non-violent

Rubber bullets, teargas, kettling, arrests: the police tactics against non-violent protesters

The Guardian

The Biggest Psychological Experiment in History Is Running Now

Scientific American

Even In A Pandemic, WHO Believes That Public Protests Are Important

The World Health Organization, in a press conference on Monday, expressed solidarity with the demonstrations calling for racial justice — and shared advice to reduce the risk of catching COVID-19.

NPR

How The Pandemic Has Transformed New York's Chinatown

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with food writer Grace Young, who made a series of YouTube videos Coronavirus: Chinatown Stories, about the state of New York's Chinatown at the moment.

NPR

China’s economy is still struggling to recover from the pandemic

CNN

New York City exits coronavirus lockdown but enters a new crisis

CNN

covid-19-reveals-the-power-of-deregulation

For decades, red tape has frustrated the efforts of healthcare providers to deliver timely, high-quality care. The pandemic has shown just how useless so many of those regulations were. Continuing the deregulatory drive will yield a more efficient and more responsive health system for all.

Forbes

Here’s where we stand on getting a coronavirus vaccine

CNN

How the Constitution’s federalist framework is being tested by COVID-19

Jennifer Selin writes that the COVID-19 pandemic has raised issues of state and federal control that are not fully resolved. Among them, governors have gained a lot of executive power in recent years and they have also participated in partisan conflicts with or against sitting presidents.

Brookings

Estimating the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 in Europe

Modelling based on pooled data from 11 European countries indicates that non-pharmaceutical interventions—particularly lockdowns—have had a marked effect on SARS-CoV-2 transmission, driving the reproduction number of the infection below 1.

Nature

Texas Reports Record-Breaking COVID-19 Hospitalizations As State Reopens

Texas Department of State Health Services says 1,935 people were admitted as hospital patients with the coronavirus. That is up from a previous record of 1,888 more than a month ago.

NPR

New Zealand lifts all Covid restrictions, declaring the nation virus-free

PM Jacinda Ardern says she 'did a little dance' as it was confirmed NZ had no active virus cases.

BBC

Our Mission

The COVID-19 History Project is a curated archive of the events and policy decisions surrounding the emergence of COVID-19.

The pandemic era of 2020-2022 saw massive increases in restrictions on daily life—enforced by the government and by social stigma—accompanied social protests that roiled cities worldwide

In the United States alone, trillions of dollars were spent by the federal government to offset the forced closure of businesses and the devastation of normal life.

The impacts of these policy decisions are still being felt today.

Some would like us to forget the actions and people that played a significant role during the pandemic.

But we of the COVID-19 History Project don't want to forget. Through our work, we hope there will always be an archive to learn from and interpret this fascinating, disturbing, time in world history.

The Timeline

In order to learn from the mistakes of the past, and give COVID-19 decision makers the credit—both good and bad—they deserve, we have compiled a media timeline from every day of the pandemic.

We have endeavored to make the timeline comprehensive without being duplicative, following the major trends as they unfolded.

We provided analyses for each month highlighting major events, but encourage readers to make their own conclusions about these events as well.

This Day in COVID: June 8, 2021

Details

How COVID-19 variants evade immune response

Research revealed how certain mutations in circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants allow the virus to avoid neutralization by many antibodies.

National Institutes of Health NIH .gov

A model and predictions for COVID-19 considering population behavior and vaccination - Scientific Reports

Nature

U.S. Report Found It Plausible Covid-19 Leaked From Wuhan Lab

WSJ

Fake COVID Vaccine Cards Are Being Sold Online. Using One Is A Crime

Officials have pleaded with tech giants to keep the documents off their sites, but Amazon briefly had blank vaccination cards for sale this week. They could land their bearers in prison.

NPR

Pfizer to test COVID-19 vaccine in larger group of children below 12

Reuters

Optimizing vaccine allocation for COVID-19 vaccines shows the potential role of single-dose vaccination - Nature Communications

Most COVID-19 vaccines require two doses but a single dose provides partial protection, so it is unclear how best to prioritize vaccine distribution in the context of limited supply. Here, the authors show that campaigns in which some age groups receive one dose while others receive both doses may be optimal.

Nature

The COVID lab-leak hypothesis: what scientists do and don’t know

Nature examines arguments that the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab in China, and the science behind them.

Nature

What ingredients go into a COVID-19 vaccine? | World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum

Seattle's Virus Success Shows What Could Have Been Published 2021

The New York Times

CDC study finds coronavirus vaccines lead to milder disease in rare breakthrough infections | CNN

CNN

Top Biden coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt announces last day at White House

Slavitt said he's leaving the temporary position Wednesday, but warned we 'cannot let our progress be a reason for taking our foot off the pedal.'

NBC News

Early assessment of lung function in coronavirus patients using invariant markers from chest X-rays images - Scientific Reports

Nature

Climate talks face rich-poor coronavirus vaccine divide

There’s worry that rich countries will have fully vaccinated delegations for the COP26 while poorer countries won’t.

www.politico.eu

Porch Diaries: portraits from Melbourne’s coronavirus lockdowns – photo essay

Melbourne photographer Alana Holmberg’s series features those who passed by her Brunswick home during the pandemic lockdowns

The Guardian

Molecular evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in New York before the first pandemic wave - Nature Communications

Matthew M. Hernandez and Ana S. Gonzalez-Reiche and colleagues report evidence of SARSCoV-2 infections in respiratory pathogen-negative nasopharyngeal specimens collected in New York, which date back to over one month before the first officially documented case in the state. The findings provide insights in to the origins of the virus in New York.

Nature

COVAX is failing to halt the COVID-19 pandemic: here's why, and how to fix it

The Conversation

On Top of Everything Else, the Pandemic Messed With Our Morals

The traumas of the past year have left some people wrestling with an awful question: Am I still a good person?

The Atlantic

America's largest cities saw the sharpest population losses during the pandemic, new census data shows

This analysis demonstrates that big cities with populations exceeding 250,000 showed lower population growth in the year the pandemic began than in the previous year, and nearly one-third of them registered their lowest annual growth in the decade.

Brookings

Fauci warns COVID-19 variant 1st detected in India still a threat to US

Dr. Anthony Fauci said the COVID-19 variant that originated in India could still spread in the U.S. unless more Americans get vaccinated.

ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos

This chart shows how COVID cases have plummeted as more people get vaccinated

New daily COVID-19 infections have recently hit their lowest numbers since March of 2020.

PBS

Pharmacist who 'intentionally' destroyed 500 Covid vaccine doses gets three years in prison

Steven Brandenburg told a federal judge on Tuesday that he was 'desperately sorry and ashamed' about what he did.

NBC News

Houston Hospital Workers Walk Out Over Covid Vaccine Mandate

The New York Times

Covid-19 vaccines: Why some African states can't use their vaccines

African countries have struggled to get vaccines, but some are now throwing away thousands of doses.

BBC

Expiratory aerosol particle escape from surgical masks due to imperfect sealing - Scientific Reports

Nature